Sleep Deprivation

Spring break is coming up, and since every single teacher at school is either scheduling a test or project day before spring break, what better topic to do than sleep deprivation?

Everyone has those long nights with too much work to do, and every so often we end up staying up the entire night, some of us surviving on a cup of coffee or energy drink. Obviously success doesn't come without hard work, which can mean not sleeping some nights, but did you know about all the effects it will have on you? First off, there are many causes of sleep deprivation. The stresses of daily life may intrude upon our ability to sleep well, or perhaps we trade sleep for more work or play. We may have medical or mental-health conditions that disrupt our sleep, and be well aware that we are sleep deprived. 

There are many prices to pay for sleep deprivation. This doesn't mean that if you pull an all nighter once that any of these conditions will happen, but if you get into a daily routine and it becomes second nature, these side effects can sneak up on you and start taking over your life. Side effects include:

• High Blood Pressure 
• Heart attack
• Heart failure
• Stroke
• Obesity
• Psychiatric problems, including depression and other mood disorders
• Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
• Mental impairment
• Fetal and childhood growth retardation
• Injury from accidents
• Disruption of bed partner's sleep quality
• Poor quality of life

Sometimes if you feel like you cant do anything about it and life just keeps dragging you down, just think about the things that really matter in the long run. Sometimes in life we can take things too seriously, but just remember that if we feel stressed out about everything, especially things that just really aren't that big of a deal, we will live our already-too-short lives being depressed, tired and miserable. Its always good to catch some Z's!

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1690

 http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/important-sleep-habits

Flight 370

It's something you usually would read out of a book or see in a movie, a plane vanishing mid-flight and being cut off by all communications. It's a Bermuda Triangle type of story, a massive Boeing 777 carrying 239 passengers disappearing into thin air, and the only way of knowing where it actually is right now is guessing where it has gone since the last time it pinged the satellite, or exchanging information of its whereabouts. After the plane lost communications with the commercial radar, about thirty minutes later the Rolls Royce engines pinged a satellite, which means that when the plane lost communications, it didn't crash.

There have been a lot of investigations on the incident, including one hopeful discovery. When the friends and family of the passengers called the phones of the people riding the Malaysia Airlines flight, the other end rang. If it would have gone straight to voice mail, they would have known that the phones would have been destroyed from water damage. This still shed a little light of hope at the end of the tunnel, but it has already been a week since the plane left the ground on its way to Beijing. A big part of the investigation was that the two passengers who managed to enter the plane with fake passports could have hijacked the plane and diverted its course to a possible terrorist attack location.

So...where could it be? Its crazy to think that a massive plane with 239 people on it, people just like all of us, with jobs, families, friends, homes, have just disappeared and now not a single person, except the possible survivors of the plane, know where they are. The scary thing is, they could all be alive, alive in our very world, stranded on an island or lost at sea, and not a single one of the 7 billion people in this world has any idea of where they are. They could be trapped somewhere, alone in their own little world, with no food or water, or for that matter, too much water. It's like in the movies when people are stranded on an island or at sea, except real life. But hey, best case scenario, maybe one of these days a helicopter finds them and saves the survivors, (survivors who have possibly turned into cannibals), and then make a multi-million dollar movie about the story. (And if it happens, I called it and i want 10 percent of all profits.)

WIIIIILLLSOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!
                          




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-authorities-wide-search-for-missing-plane-again/#
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/03/15/malaysia-airlines-search-heads-toward-indian-ocean/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/world/asia/pilot-and-first-officer-newly-scrutinized-in-planes-disappearance.html?_r=0

Daylight Savings Time

This Sunday marks an important date on the calendar; daylight savings time (DST). Although it is obvious that not many people are happy about the fact that they will lose an hour of sleep, there are still some positive things about DST. The good thing is that we will gain an hour of daylight,  so those gloomy days of walking out of school or work at 4 o'clock  in the afternoon and it's already dark out are over.

Many people don't like the system, stating that it is an inconvenience and has too many negative effects. Try telling that to Benjamin Franklin, the man credited with DST. He cane up with DST to make the best use of daylight hours by shifting the clock forward in the spring and backwards in the fall. Some states, including Arizona and Hawaii don't even follow DST, and some states are even trying to pass bills to allow them to opt out of the system. Some people even say that it increases the risk of a heart attack because some people are already sleep deprived. Whether you like it or not, or for that fact, think you will actually have a heart attack because you got 60 minutes less of sleep for one night, we can all at least enjoy an extra hour of some good ol' sunlight.


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=F6QcU8SvFq_n7AacpIGgCg&url=http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/&cd=7&ved=0CD4QFjAG&usg=AFQjCNHdThPgLvgWMXpWAiMmf1iOggN6zA&sig2=a_Yh-3nvrnh5xEVgIwbkog

http://www.date and time.com

When will the cold STOP???

Man, we're really seeing the effects of global warming this year with these abnormal temperatures smacking us in the face every morning we leave our homes. There has been one thing on everyone's mind if anything; when will this miserable weather stop?? This has been among one of the most harsh winters for the middle east United States with many records being set for these cold days and snow days. The average temperature between December and February was 8.2 degrees less than it usually is, striking the fourth coldest winter on Illinois record. It was also one of the years with the most snowfall. Jaw-dropping measurements have been recorded across the state, including a total of 79.8 inches of precipitation in the Lincolnwood and Oak Park area.

Now, we are nearing the end of the first week of March, we still have most of the snow that has been left for us since mid-February. Every time I think to myself , "Surely that's the last of it," mother nature surprises us with yet another three inches here, three inches there. Today, it got up to about 45 degrees, only to trick us into thinking spring is finally coming, because tomorrow, more snow is on it's way. With a couple feet still in the ground in some places, most people are looking forward to spring break more than ever, except if your the genius that planned a family ski trip to Colorado during one of Illinois' coldest winter.

http://www.wsoyam.com/pages/18127204.php?
http://elburnherald.com/34165/2014/03/08/winter-2014-fourth-coldest-in-illinois/

How do they make zero gravity effects in movies?

Technology is advancing faster than ever these days, and one movie lately left me wondering; how the heck do they do it? After watching the movie Gravity, the story of two shuttle astronauts hurtled through space by a space disaster, I couldn't figure out how they made Sandra Bullock and George Clooney float effortlessly for the entire two hours of filming. The movie takes place in space, not just snippets and parts, but the entire movie. "There's no way this movie was filmed in space," I thought to myself, and there was no way the actors agreed to film it free-falling from below the atmosphere in a 747, known as parabolic airplane flights, which is usually how they film plane dives and  those short, action filled gunfights you see in the James Bond movies. One of the recent movies that uses this type of filming was Apollo 13, which only allows about thirty seconds of zero gravity at a time (unless you want about two-minutes worth which will also include a dramatic crash landing). This wasn't an option, however, because thirty seconds was not near long enough for all the shots needed for the film, and also Sandra Bullock is deathly afraid of flying.

It turns out, the movie was filmed using a "light box", or a huge contraption that the actors sit in which is made up of thousands of LED lights. These lights produce high-definition moving images that spin around a motionless actor to make it seem as if they are spinning. This is how they were able to portray the enormous planet Earth in the background while Bullock was being thrown through space. The actors sit on small pedestals while the light box displays different images around them. The actors were also in a harness for some scenes free floating, while they had green cords and strings attached to some parts of their body like a human puppet. They were then controlled by puppeteers who made their arms and leg move. When the actors were locked up inside the light boxes, computer-controlled robotic cameras captured close-ups under just the right lighting conditions — even for the scenes where Bullock looks as if she's spinning out of control. In reality, it's the light patterns that are spinning around her. 

Click the link below to see a behind the scenes video on how the movie was filmed using the light box!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18svz7_gravity-behind-the-scenes_shortfilms

GEORGE CLOONEY DIES.

Spoiler Alert...

Controversial Concussions

Debate regarding the health effects of concussions in the NFL and on all American football players has caused considerable controversy across the nation. Not only is it a problem for these professional athletes, but every day in the US, players suffer the consequences of these sports and the side effects of concussions. 

A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that is caused by a blow to the head or body, a fall, or another injury that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull. Although there may be cuts or bruises on the head or face, there may be no other visible signs of a brain injury.

Players in the NFL are making known the serious risk of concussions, while the rest of them are dishing them out to the rest of the other players. Former NFL safety Hazma Abdullah went on a twitter rant about how horribly the NFL treats its players, making sure the poor helmet safety didn't go unnoticed. 

There has been arguments popping up here and there for the past 20 years in the NFL about how safe the helmets are for the players and how safe it is to return to play after a concussion. Most of the players reply with the same statement; "Every player understood the risks of playing football, and we did it, and would do it over again!" The long term effects on these athletes is the bigger part of the problem. Retired players with significant amounts of concussions, especially those who returned to play too early, end up being suicidal, have depression, memory loss, and moderate to even severe brain damage. Players have even died from concussions. Since 1997, at least 50 high school football players have died or received serious head injuries.

There have been numerous attempt to promote concussion safety and reduce the number of these accidents. The only way to prevent it from happening in the first place, is to develop safer, more shock-absorbent helmets. Since it is harder to do this, companies like Schutt and Reebok have developed new indicators that hook up to helmets that can alert a coach if the player has a concussion. These are sensors that are attached to the helmet that turn from green to red when a player is hit with a g-force of more than 100. Although this does not prevent the concussion from happening, it can alert someone that the player is at danger if left in the game, and can prevent further injury. Doctors have found out that when a player is hit with a g-force of more than 100, there is a significant increase in the chance of getting concussed, even though when a quarter back is sacked by a linebacker, there is about a g-force of 150. Doctors and sportswear developers are working on new ways to develop safer equipment for players so they can be safer and in better shape not only on the field, but off the field, so that their heads aren't full of useless mush by the time they're 40. Some of the players who are in the NFL are only there because they managed to pass college with their masters in underwater basket-weaving, so the last thing we need is a bunch of brain-dead athletes who talk like Jameis Winston after winning the BCS Championship on a daily basis.

http://www.webmd.com/brain/tc/traumatic-brain-injury-concussion-overview

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2013/10/31/nfl-hamza-abdullah-twitter-rant/3324749/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concussions_in_American_football#Concussions_in_high_school_football